Bart van Ark

Friday the 13th turned out to be very unlucky indeed for the euro zone, as Standard & Poor's downgraded nine countries in the bloc, including triple-A rated France and Austria, and put 14 of the 17 countries on negative outlook.

Labor productivity growth in the U.S. has dropped to 1.4%, the lowest level "in more than a decade," according to a report released January 23 by the Conference Board in New York. Growth in labor productivity in the U.S decelerated from 2.5% IN 2004 to 1.8% in 2005 to this...